Presentation of the municipality and the origins of the email project
Located just 8 kilometres from Paris, La Courneuve is a municipality in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, shaped by its industrial heritage and multicultural population. With 48,000 residents and significant social challenges, the city faces the ongoing task of maintaining high-quality public services despite declining resources.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, like many public and private organisations, La Courneuve had to implement emergency measures to enable employees to work remotely and ensure continuity of service. As part of this effort, Microsoft 365 licences were purchased and deployed in haste under a three-year contract.
As the Microsoft 365 licensing agreement was due to expire in 2023, the question of choosing a new provider naturally arose. The cost trajectory imposed by Microsoft 365 was no longer compatible with the municipality’s budget constraints. At the same time, there was no question of compromising on the quality of the collaborative workspace relied upon by city employees.
Read the article published in IT for Business – November 2024
FactorFX and BlueMind: open-source alternatives for digital sovereignty.
Following the Covid-19 crisis, Catherine Soutoul, Director of Information Services for the City of La Courneuve, took over leadership of the IT department. As the Microsoft 365 contract approached its renewal date and budget constraints became increasingly pressing, she initiated discussions with the city’s executive leadership to explore a path away from Microsoft dependency.
“Throughout my career, I have led several open-source projects,” she explains. “It was only natural to explore that path, especially since, at the time, DINUM had published guidance stating that Microsoft 365 did not comply with the Cloud au Centre policy and should no longer be used by French government ministries.”*
In this context, the MyBSuite collaborative platform, based on BlueMind and delivered by French integrator FactorFX, proved to be a strong fit for the city’s requirements.
“I had worked with FactorFX before,” explains Catherine Soutoul. “I know their expertise and professionalism, and we had built a relationship of trust. As for BlueMind, it is a well-established and widely recognized alternative for collaborative email. Together, the two solutions perfectly met our needs at a cost that was three times lower than Microsoft 365.”
* DINUM (Direction interministérielle du numérique – the French government’s Interministerial Digital Directorate)
Making migration easier with bm-migrator
Conference presentation: the City of La Courneuve shares its experience at OSXP 2024
The migration from Microsoft 365 to MyBSuite was driven by a strict deadline, as the city’s Microsoft licences were approaching expiration. The challenge was to migrate all 1,200 employees within a short timeframe while ensuring minimal disruption to their day-to-day work and maintaining business continuity throughout the transition.
BlueMind’s native migration tool, bm-migrator, automated most of the migration process, including emails, calendars, contacts, resources and shared data.
To allow users to test the new environment ahead of the full rollout, a split-domain setup was implemented, enabling the IT department to migrate first. During this transition period, Microsoft 365 and BlueMind coexisted and operated seamlessly together, giving the team time to validate usage scenarios and prepare the complete migration of all employees.
The migration project was carried out in close collaboration with FactorFX’s project teams and supported by highly committed pilot departments within the municipality. Their involvement played a key role in validating the solution, gathering feedback, and ensuring a smooth transition for all users.
Supporting users throughout the transition
“None of our employees were using the full range of Microsoft 365 features,” explains Catherine Soutoul, the municipality’s Director of Information Services. “That made it easier to introduce a solution that was better aligned with our actual needs while also being sovereign and more cost-effective. We did not encounter any resistance internally, but we were, of course, very careful to communicate early and provide strong support throughout the transition.”
La Courneuve drew on the wide range of adoption resources provided by BlueMind to support users throughout the transition, including short videos, screenshots, documentation and internal newsletters.
The municipality chose a full web-based deployment of BlueMind. Employees were informed in advance that, upon returning from their holidays, their collaborative workspace would have changed. This approach helped ensure a smooth transition while keeping disruption to a minimum.
By migrating not only data but also configuration settings—such as resources, shared folders and contacts—BlueMind enabled employees to retain their familiar working environment. As a result, users were able to adapt quickly to the new solution and continue working with minimal disruption.
Benefits and key takeaways
“The best compliment we can pay BlueMind today is that our users don’t think about it. Email just works, and that feels completely natural. The transition to BlueMind was seamless.”
BlueMind’s webmail strikes an excellent balance between the features and user experience employees appreciated in Outlook and their day-to-day operational needs. Among the benefits most frequently highlighted by users are the ease of calendar management—particularly for shared resources such as meeting rooms—and the platform’s mobility capabilities.
The deployment impacted every department across the municipality and was carried out smoothly, with minimal disruption to users and business operations.
Six months after the migration, employees are continuing to explore the various tools included in the MyBSuite platform, such as chat and cloud storage, and are becoming increasingly confident and autonomous in their use of the solution.
“The savings we achieved enabled us to provide email accounts to all staff, including non-administrative employees,” says Catherine Soutoul. “We installed access kiosks in staff break rooms, and today even an ATSEM, for example, can access a professional email account and be fully integrated into the city’s communication network.”
Finally, among the key benefits of the migration, Catherine Soutoul highlights the responsiveness, close collaboration and attentive support provided by both FactorFX and BlueMind. Communication has been constructive, enhancement requests are handled smoothly, and the level of proximity offered is something that only a French sovereign solution can truly deliver.
